Directors of Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, which runs community health services, and the Oxford University Hospitals Trust (OUH), have seen their salaries boosted by up to £10,000.

Oxford Health has outlined £52m of cuts over the next five years from all of its services – including staffing costs – and workers are on an NHS-wide pay freeze.

It is currently consulting with nurses on bringing in a new longer shift of 12 hours to ‘increase efficiency’.

Overseeing the cuts was Julie Waldron, chief executive of the trust, who during the last financial year saw her salary increased from between £160,000-£165,000 to £165,000- £170,000.

Meanwhile, two Oxford University Hospitals Trust directors – who must oversee £160m of savings over the next four years – have also accepted a pay rise.

OUH chief executive Sir Jonathan Michael – who saw his salary boosted from £210,000-£215,000 to £215,000-£220,000 across the same period – outlined plans to cut the budget by £49m over the next year alone in an interview with the Oxford Mail in June.

Related links

The cuts will include £3.6m in ward closures, £2.5m in job cuts including compulsory redundancies and £3.2m from changes to nursing rotas on adult wards.

Andrew Stevens, the trust’s director of planning and information, also saw his salary boosted from £105,000-£110,000 to £110,000-£115,000. The average nurse earns about £26,000 a year.

It comes as the NHS Employers body recommends the NHS pay freeze is extended for a third year to ‘protect services and minimise job losses’.

NHS staff earning more than £21,000 have been on a pay freeze for two years, although staff employed on an Agenda for Change pay scale receive small incremental rises until they reach the top of their pay band.

Agenda for Change is the system of pay put in place in 2004. Staff are placed in one of nine pay bands on the basis of their knowledge, responsibility, skills and effort needed for the job.

Neither trust could say how many staff were employed under the scheme and how many were not.

All three directors could have turned down the recommended pay increases but none did.

The OUH statement said the directors had received the pay increases – set by Non-Executive Directors of the Trust through the Remuneration and Appointments Committee – to ‘address market relativities’.

A spokesman added: “In November 2011 Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals merged with the Nuffield Ortho-paedic Centre to form Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust.

“The salary paid to the Chief Executive of the Trust is within a comparable pay range to other large teaching hospitals and similar senior roles across the public and private sector and reflects the complexity of the role.”

Oxford Health, which employs 5,500 staff and runs community hospitals and mental health services, said its priority was to minimise financial impacts on clinical services and look to make savings in senior management and back office functions.

A spokesman added: “Although some directors received a pay increase of between four and eight per cent, there was a reduction in Executive Director spend as one Executive Director post was removed.

“The portfolio and responsibilities for other directors grew in order to enable this reduction in posts, and salaries were increased in some areas to reflect this. Even with this small percentage increase there was still an overall decrease in the Trust spend on Executive Director posts.

“This is the first time any Executive Director salaries have been increased in three years and therefore the average increases over that period are similar to those received by staff on Agenda for Change.”

“It’s very unfair. People won’t understand why they’re being told they’re cutting staff, and having their own pay held down for third year in a row, but they’ve accepted a pay rise. It beggars belief.”

WHAT OUR MPS THINK

Andrew Smith, Oxford East MP, said: “It is totally unacceptable for health chiefs to accept these increases when the pay of the people they are in charge of is frozen, and when huge savings have to be made in patient services. This smacks of one rule for them, one rule for everybody else. The Trusts should think again about these rises – and reverse them. I am today writing to the Secretary of State for Health asking him to step in. There is no way he can justify these increases going ahead when the government is freezing public sector pay.”

Nicola Blackwood, Oxford West and Abingdon MP, said: ‘I am not aware of the full context of this decision but on the surface I think that both taxpayers who rely on NHS services, and NHS staff who have had their salaries frozen, will find it hard to see the fairness in this decision, especially as increasingly difficult spending choices are having to be made across our public services.'

John Howell, Henley MP, said: “I have not seen this. If it is true, it is much to be regretted. When there are pay restraints across the public sector, including MPs, it is not acceptable for senior trust staff to be accepting increases of this magnitude.”

Comments (8)

"It is currently consulting with nurses on bringing in a new longer shift of 12 hours to ‘increase efficiency’. "

There has been no consultation. My wife has been working 7am-8pm for a year now at the JR. She had no say in the change of shifts. She regularly gets migraines now after finishing her shifts and has sometimes not been able to drive home.We are lucky that I am in a job that my employers allow( albeit they are not happy) me to take and collect my children from School and after School clubs. She like many of her work colleagues are looking at leaving the profession, which she had once loved when she started 27 years ago.

"It is currently consulting with nurses on bringing in a new longer shift of 12 hours to ‘increase efficiency’. "
There has been no consultation. My wife has been working 7am-8pm for a year now at the JR. She had no say in the change of shifts. She regularly gets migraines now after finishing her shifts and has sometimes not been able to drive home.We are lucky that I am in a job that my employers allow( albeit they are not happy) me to take and collect my children from School and after School clubs. She like many of her work colleagues are looking at leaving the profession, which she had once loved when she started 27 years ago.Mark L.

Hold on. They get a pay rise, and us workers will lose up to £200 a month when the new shift pattern comes in. On band 3 wages, it is difficult already to live on our salary. They are going to take the money that they are going to save from us workers to fund their pay increase. It not about efficiency otherwise they would not of had a pay rise. WHEN YOU ARE TRYING TO SAVE MONEY IN THE TRUST, YOU DON'T GIVE YOURSELF AND 2 OTHERS A £10,000 PER YEAR INCREASE.
Sir Michael should no longer be a sir. An absolute disgrace these bosses.

Hold on. They get a pay rise, and us workers will lose up to £200 a month when the new shift pattern comes in. On band 3 wages, it is difficult already to live on our salary. They are going to take the money that they are going to save from us workers to fund their pay increase. It not about efficiency otherwise they would not of had a pay rise. WHEN YOU ARE TRYING TO SAVE MONEY IN THE TRUST, YOU DON'T GIVE YOURSELF AND 2 OTHERS A £10,000 PER YEAR INCREASE.
Sir Michael should no longer be a sir. An absolute disgrace these bosses.jjonson

incredible these salary increases could have paid for two newly qualified nurses that are desperately needed.

Just shows that these people sat in the "top offices" really do not give a **** either about the staff or the patients.

incredible these salary increases could have paid for two newly qualified nurses that are desperately needed.
Just shows that these people sat in the "top offices" really do not give a **** either about the staff or the patients.Arnold.Brewer

Mark L. wrote:
&quot;It is currently consulting with nurses on bringing in a new longer shift of 12 hours to ‘increase efficiency’. "

There has been no consultation. My wife has been working 7am-8pm for a year now at the JR. She had no say in the change of shifts. She regularly gets migraines now after finishing her shifts and has sometimes not been able to drive home.We are lucky that I am in a job that my employers allow( albeit they are not happy) me to take and collect my children from School and after School clubs. She like many of her work colleagues are looking at leaving the profession, which she had once loved when she started 27 years ago.

The consultation is in Oxford Health trust where UNISON stewards have organised members to enagge with the consultation. At the OUH it was done by departymetn rather than Trust wide so got past as it was in areas with no reps and no-one raised it with the union giving management a clear run. UNISON objections are wide ranging, from the health impact on memebrs to the reduction in bursing hours the shift changes are bringing, exposing patents to greater risks. Sadly the plans for cuts are far worse. While this story is welcome we need staff to act. We have 14 coaches going to the national TUC mach on Oct 20 to stop all the cuts. www.ouh.org.uk

[quote][p][bold]Mark L.[/bold] wrote:
"It is currently consulting with nurses on bringing in a new longer shift of 12 hours to ‘increase efficiency’. "
There has been no consultation. My wife has been working 7am-8pm for a year now at the JR. She had no say in the change of shifts. She regularly gets migraines now after finishing her shifts and has sometimes not been able to drive home.We are lucky that I am in a job that my employers allow( albeit they are not happy) me to take and collect my children from School and after School clubs. She like many of her work colleagues are looking at leaving the profession, which she had once loved when she started 27 years ago.[/p][/quote]The consultation is in Oxford Health trust where UNISON stewards have organised members to enagge with the consultation. At the OUH it was done by departymetn rather than Trust wide so got past as it was in areas with no reps and no-one raised it with the union giving management a clear run. UNISON objections are wide ranging, from the health impact on memebrs to the reduction in bursing hours the shift changes are bringing, exposing patents to greater risks. Sadly the plans for cuts are far worse. While this story is welcome we need staff to act. We have 14 coaches going to the national TUC mach on Oct 20 to stop all the cuts. www.ouh.org.ukianmck

Are any of these creatures medically qualified or are they all just clerks ? They would call it "managers" but in the public sector no one has the power to hire and fire, it must be done by a committee, so they are clerks-incredibly well paid clerks and no doubt totally dispensible clerks. Let them go. They'll not be missed. Take on people at about 50-60 K, that's a fair wage for the job. If they want more than let them offer their skills to the commercial or manufacturing sector.

Are any of these creatures medically qualified or are they all just clerks ? They would call it "managers" but in the public sector no one has the power to hire and fire, it must be done by a committee, so they are clerks-incredibly well paid clerks and no doubt totally dispensible clerks. Let them go. They'll not be missed. Take on people at about 50-60 K, that's a fair wage for the job. If they want more than let them offer their skills to the commercial or manufacturing sector.Lord Palmerstone

With the national news this morning highlighting how the BBC has many "employees" running their affairs through Service Companies and trying to avoid the full tax bill of PAYE it might be a reasonable question for the Oxford Mail to check if these high earners at OUHNHS Trust are properly employed and all tax on their full salaries is deducted through the PAYE system.

With the national news this morning highlighting how the BBC has many "employees" running their affairs through Service Companies and trying to avoid the full tax bill of PAYE it might be a reasonable question for the Oxford Mail to check if these high earners at OUHNHS Trust are properly employed and all tax on their full salaries is deducted through the PAYE system.Arnold.Brewer

Total disgrace, perhaps they should seek alternative employment elsewhere , perhaps in catering as they seem to be very well qualified Bar Stewards already. Hypocrite's doesn't even come close, maybe contemptible, uncouth, two faced, back stabbing, mealy mouthed hypocrites is maybe an inch closer. Just love to see the treatment they would get in A + E admissions on a busy weekend, but then again, the staff are professionals and wouldn't let personal issues cloud the judgement, shame really. Then again, according to Double Dip Dave , we are all in it together, so just how are these rises justified, maybe Gideon Osbourne has some obscure answer.

Total disgrace, perhaps they should seek alternative employment elsewhere , perhaps in catering as they seem to be very well qualified Bar Stewards already. Hypocrite's doesn't even come close, maybe contemptible, uncouth, two faced, back stabbing, mealy mouthed hypocrites is maybe an inch closer. Just love to see the treatment they would get in A + E admissions on a busy weekend, but then again, the staff are professionals and wouldn't let personal issues cloud the judgement, shame really. Then again, according to Double Dip Dave , we are all in it together, so just how are these rises justified, maybe Gideon Osbourne has some obscure answer.the wizard